Knowing how to start a successful blog for your business is no small task.

This is especially true if you’re tasked with building a blog for a business from the ground up. Even if you’re working with an established brand, getting traffic to a new blog isn’t easy. Getting that traffic to convert is even harder.

These challenges are compounded by the fact that your boss (and their boss, too) likely want to see results fast.

No one knows this better than the team here at CoSchedule. When the company started, there was no defined audience for this blog. Everything needed to be built up from scratch, and it needed to start delivering results fast. It was a high-pressure scenario, but with a small amount of planning and a lot of trial-and-error effort, it’s become what you see now today.

However, that advice and encouragement isn't worth much if you don't know where to start.

How To Choose Your Blogging Platform

There are a lot of options when it comes to choosing your blog platform.

But one platform far exceeds any other: WordPress.org. In fact, about 75 million sites use WordPress. It's by far the world's most-used content management system. And it's the go-to platform for serious bloggers.

Note: If you must use a different blogging platform (like Blogger, Typepad, or Tumblr), skip past the technical items and move on to the next section of this post.

A note on the difference between WordPress.org and WordPress.com:

At first, it might not seem like there's a difference. WordPress is WordPress, right? Well, not quite.WordPress.org:

2. Target a keyword as your blog name. When people search for that keyword, your blog should really show up in those search results. You'll be seen as a thought leader for that keyword and related content.

3. Choose something creative for your blog name. It frames the experience people will expect (inclusive, fun, descriptive, etc.). If it's unique enough, it'll be really easy to own a top search result for the name of your blog.

There are more than 3,000 existing themes to choose from. And you can search and filter super easily to find features you really like.

Free Versus Premium WordPress Themes

You have two options here: choosing a free theme, or paying for one. Alternately, you could also build a theme yourself. However, that's likely out of consideration unless you have assistance from a developer.

Here's what you need to know before choosing a free or premium theme.

Free Themes

While free is sometimes synonymous with low-quality, that's not always the case with themes.

You really can find some great free themes to use as you build your momentum to blog more, then switch to a premium (or paid) option that is a bit more robust.

Check the last date the developer updated the theme, how many downloads it has, the ratings, and the support threads. More is better in this case: more recent, more downloads, more stars, more support threads closed.

Choose a theme that is designed just the way you like it. Customizing the code can be tricky—and break things you wouldn't otherwise expect.

Make sure you choose a theme that has responsive design. It's the easiest way to make sure your mobile visitors have the best experience.

Tom also recommends looking at roundup posts of the best free themes since finding the perfect one out of thousands can be tough. So I found a bunch for you to check out:

Pro Tip: Be careful when selecting free themes. Sometimes they come loaded with malicious code. This shouldn't scare you off from using a free theme completely, but do make sure you choose yours from a reputable sources.

One of the best ways to get traffic and social shares is to make it super easy for your readers to share your content. And it's even better if they can share it right when they're most actively engaged—while they're reading.

Step 2: Use Keyword Research & Social Listening

Your problem has been defined, you’ve begun to identify who your first audience members are. Now it’s time to dig deeper.

First, take the problem-solving terms you’ve identified and plug them into Google Trends or ubersuggest.org to identify other related search terms used. Keep a list of these. They will come in handy when building out your editorial schedule.

Google Trends is a great tool for broadening your search, while sticking with specific, relevant topics.

Monitor these conversations to see who the existing thought leaders are. Reach out, and build a relationship with these folks. See what else they’re talking and writing about. What seems to be resonating with their audiences?

Look at comments on the blogs of these thought leaders and your competitors. What are people asking? What do they want to know more about? With your list of key terms and key people, keep a list of these topics and questions.

With this exercise, you’re building a library of subjects that people are already searching for and interested in; i.e. you’re writing for an existing audience who will be more likely to discover your content.

Step 3: Identify Your Distribution Channels

Once you've started creating blog posts, you'll need to determine which channels and platforms you'll use to promote it. Put the most emphasis on the ones your audience uses the most.

Step 4: Define Your Unique Brand Voice

You should now have a pretty robust list of topics to start producing content around.

As you begin producing that content, you should be defining your unique voice.

When you tracked the problem your brand solves using a media monitoring tool earlier, you probably identified a few competitors working to solve the same problem. Look to see the type of voice they’re using. What tone and language is resonating with their audiences? How can you be unique and stand out among them?

Are they using typical, dry B2B phrases and click-bait calls to action? Try taking a more human approach and use the kind of language your prospective readers do. Your audience is made up of humans—don’t forget that.

Pro Tip: Remember, a blog doesn’t have to be all written content. For example, Close.io and Moz are doing really interesting things with video content on their blogs.

Step 5: Scout For Community Members

Identifying thought leaders and influencers via media monitoring in step 2 is a great starting point for flagging your first community members.

You can even go a step further by joining relevant Twitter chats, Google Hangouts, going to events. Get out there, talk to people, tell them that you’re building a blog. Ask them if they would read your first few posts before they’re public, and give them credit for their input.

These folks are the kind of brand advocates you need to take your business to the next level.

Step 6: Build Relationships With Your Peers

In addition to the content circle mentioned above, you should build relationships with top-bloggers in related industries and spaces for guest post opportunities. That is, both for them to contribute to your new blog, and for you to contribute to theirs.

Feel free to get creative here. These blogs don’t need to necessarily be directly tied to what it is you’re offering, but need to reach your target audience, and be relevant enough for them to want to learn more about what you’re working on then and there.

To identify top blogs, do a search on buzzsumo.com using the terms identified in step 2.

Start these relationships by commenting on their posts. Don’t hesitate to reach out and ask for a quick conversation, but be ready to explain how you can add value to their audience.

Step 7: Build Your Content Calendar

You have your topics, you have your audience, you have your influential guest contributors. Now for the fun part.

Start putting these topics into an editorial calendar for a holistic and birds-eye view of your publishing schedule so you can easily spot any holes and start building consistency, which will help strengthen reader loyalty by making their reading habits of your blog a ritual.

This is also where building an email list and distributing your content on a consistent and regular basis will become effective.

Next, Start Writing Your First Blog Posts

Now that you have some blog post ideas on your calendar, it's time to start doing some actual writing.

And when you start thinking about planning, you need to keep your publishing goals realistic and achievable.

But how can you actually do that?

Pick a keyword to target in your blog post. Search engine optimization is a scary term, but it's not hard to simply choose a word you'll use a few times in your blog post so people can actually find it (and... it makes it completely worth it to write the post in the first place).

Have a headline that scores above a 70 with this headline analyzer. Try a how-to, list, or question as your headline.

Make sure your post is as long as it needs to be to cover your topic. This means don't write a long post just because a study told you long-form content ranks best. What's most important is that your post completely answers the question or solves the problem your readers want to learn about.

Break up long stretches of text with images, graphics, and Click To Tweet boxes.

Conclude the post by recapping what you said, and suggest what your reader should do next.

Now You Know How To Start A Blog From Absolutely Nothing To Publishing Your First Post

You actually set up your blog using WordPress.org, you learned how to blog like a pro, and you wrote your first post.

Don't forget your How To Start A Blog Infographic

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May 23, 2016

Ben is the Content Marketing Lead at CoSchedule. His specialties include content strategy, SEO, email marketing, project management, and more. When he's not hard at work helping people do better marketing, he can be found cross-country skiing with his wife and their dog.